


Scrooge

by Merixcil



Series: Advent Fics 2017 [18]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:07:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24698065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merixcil/pseuds/Merixcil
Summary: Rey's not familiar with the notion of festivals and she struggles to understand the rest of the Rebellion's delight when they get to celebrate the winter equinox on Chandrila
Relationships: Kylo Ren & Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Advent Fics 2017 [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1767640
Kudos: 2





	Scrooge

**Author's Note:**

> This is set a few years after TLJ. Also I saw The Last Jedi for the second time today and I need the whole world to know that I love Luke Skywalker and ReyLo is absolutely happening in Ep IX

Most planets Rey’s heard of don’t really have seasons. Certainly, she never had to contend with variations in the weather on Jakku; it was hot, it was stormy, one you learned to live with it everything else was easy. You barely noticed the passing of one year into the next save for the calendar over Unkar Plutt’s stand ticking over.

She’s not prepared for the chill of a Chandrila winter, not so cold that the Resistance have had to retreat underground but more than enough for her to resent having to walk around during the day through the eternal scattering of snow that seems to be pouring from the skies. They’re a long way from any major city, but it’s not like they can show up on an inhabited planet and expect to never encounter any locals. For that reason alone it’s a less than ideal base, but General Organa had reasoned that human settlements stood out a whole lot less on planets that were supposed to be inhabited from the get go.

The locals celebrate strange festivals with names Rey can barely pronounce. She's not sure which one is currently in swing and she dislikes the crop of market stalls that have been set up in the village barely a mile from their new headquarters. It makes her anxious, wondering how long it’s going to be before someone sells out the whole Resistance to the First Order.

Not that there’s much of a Resistance left. At this stage more than half their numbers have been recruited on Chandrila, so she shouldn’t complain, but everyone else in the base is universally charmed by the strings of lights woven into the branches of native tree species that none of them have a name for, so she’s forced to spend time in the market if she doesn’t want to look anti-social.

Up ahead Finn and Rose stumble through Chandrilan language trying to purchase hotcakes flavoured with unfamiliar spices. They left Poe half an hour ago, playing a rather complex looking ballgame with the local children and a handful of other Resistance recruits. In theory it would be so easy for Rey to join any of them, they wouldn’t begrudge her presence, but she can’t find it in her heart to join in. Blame it on the stress, on how her status as a Force user isolates her from her compatriots by necessity. Whatever it is that the rest of them are tapping into, she just can’t feel it.

What she can feel is the strange stillness that ripples through the air when the bond between her and Kylo Ren is activated. In the year since he was so gracelessly deposed as leader of the First Order they’ve been talking quite a lot, more than Rey would like if she’s being honest with herself but it’s difficult not to when the Force throws them towards each other regardless of their intentions. At first she had tried to ignore him, their parting on Snoke’s ship too raw in her mind to ignore, but as time went by it would have been remiss not to take advantage of his foolhardy emotional honesty. He's smart enough not to let her in on any of his plans, of course, but once they'd started talking it grew hard to stop. He's not travelling with anyone as far as she's aware and his loneliness dogs her wherever she goes. 

When Rey looks round to find Kylo Ren standing at her side, examining the market with an air of quiet boredom, she doesn’t jump. She knows that no one else can see him, only Luke was capable of parsing this little blip in the Force between them, though she does wish they could have saved this conversation for a time when she wasn’t out in public. She’s going to look very strange talking to the air.

“This looks nice.” Kylo starts, and Rey’s not sure if he’s being sarcastic.

Rey shrugs. “Just a local festival.”

Kylo’s eyes flash towards a stall selling boiled sweets in all the colours of the rainbow and Rey remembers what a terrible sweet tooth he has. “What are they celebrating?”

“The winter, I think. Someone said it was the equinox festival but the equinox is still a week away.”

“It must be a big celebration.”

Just what Rey needs, another week or more of this congregation hanging on the edges of the Resistance’s plans. She huffs in annoyance and Kylo’s mouth quirks into a smile.

“Hux isn’t going to find you, you know? He’s an idiot. You should enjoy this while it lasts.”

“Didn’t take you for the kind of person to enjoy festivals.” Rey grumbles. She’s immediately proven wrong by a flash of childhood memories, happy days spent trawling through the richly decorated streets of Hosnian Prime and the Falcon strung up with banners to celebrate Life Day on the years Chewie couldn’t make it home. She’s so quick to forget all that, how Kylo Ren should have been Ben Organa, a spoiled rich boy who lived the charmed life that was afforded him as the son of heroes.

In return, she sends him back a never ending stream of identical evenings in Niima Outpost, where no holiday was ever noticed and no festival ever celebrated. He doesn’t exactly brim over with sympathy for her upbringing but he concedes that she might have more of a reason to feel dissatisfied with this situation than him.

Kylo’s still longing for sugar. Rey knows that he hasn’t had any in over a month and it would be hilarious how petulant he's been about it if the longing didn’t spill over their bond to infect her as well. Reluctantly, she makes her way to the stand selling boiled sweets and asks the strange, furry, bug eyed alien manning it for five of the red ones.

Languages have always come easy to Rey, but if she let her friends know how proficient she’s become in Chandrilan she’ll never stop having to play translator. The red sweets are flavoured with a flower that grows round her, spicy and ever so slightly tart. As soon as she puts one in her mouth she feels Kylo relax next to her.

 _Thank you._ He thinks

 _Don’t mention it._ She replies.

He only jumps a little when he realises that they’re communicating telepathically. It’s new, but it’s not exactly a surprise. “Rey!” He reaches out, the ghost of his hand slipping over her shoulder.

“I mean it. Don’t mention it.” Rey insists. He doesn’t take his hand off her shoulder though, following her through the market with a wide eyed fascination she would never have thought possible. 


End file.
